Electing Strange Perfections
by Alex Ripley
Summary: The only reason Thanos succeeded was because Carol Danvers was not on Earth at the time. But what if she was? What if a strange alien energy emanating L.A had brought her back home? What if by helping a bunch of superpowered kids she managed to prevent the death of half of the universe?
1. Chapter 1

When she gave Fury the pager for emergencies she expected him to call her all the time. After all who wouldn't ?But apart from calling her several times and making her travel literally tens of thousands of light years to ask questions about Goose and how to properly care for her he was surprisingly responsible. He called her only for three emergencies. The first time was about a weird shape shifting alien that was killing people in Antarctica. Instead of a Skrull it turned out to be some kind of disgusting parasite. The second time was about a meteor1 who was about to wipe out half of the planet. Thankfully she managed to smash in time and instead of a global extinction event the only thing that happened was a minor light show in Russia

The third time though….the third time was the big one. The tesseract had made its return and it was a big one. A mad Asgardian had used it to invade New York with an alien armada and sadly she didn't come fast enough to make a difference. By the time she had arrived on Earth Fury's new team The Avengers(she was considering suing him for copyright infringement) had dealt with it. And while she didn't put much stock in that war profiteer Stark (no matter how much he says he changed), an unstable rage monster or Captain Popsicle but she was quite impressed that Fury had somehow managed to lure Thor. Half of the Galaxy knew about Thor. The guy was supposed to be a bit of an idiot but also an honorable warrior who always tried his best. And while Carol had never met Thor personally she had met Lady Sif.

Carol grinned when she remembered her meeting with Lady Sif. It had been a ….memorable night. Anybody who could get the respect of a woman like this was an impressive figure. But she knew that just like with her, Thor's responsibilities weren't limited to Earth. He had a whole galaxy to defend and couldn't devote his whole attention to protecting her home so Carol had to find a solution. How to keep an eye on Earth while still managing her duties in deep space? . If Fury had called her earlier she could have helped prevent Loki's mad rampage but how was he to know what the anomalous readings of the Tesseract meant? Fury was skilled but he didn't know what signs to look for. And so Carol decided to take things in her own hands. With the help of a few friends she installed a cloaked probe in orbit that would scan both Earth and the space around it for any threats.

For a while nothing big happened. There was of course Wakanda shining like a bright beacon but it was stable, the sudden invasion of Englandwas taken care of by Thor so fast that she didn't have time to react(he was really starting to grow on her), there were a few signals coming from Sokovia that were potentially worrying but nothing solid. And then something happened that made Carol fly to Earth as fast as possible. Her satellite had detected a massive release of Gibborim energy in Los Angeles.

The Gibborim were not a very well known entity throughout the Galaxy due to the fact that unlike the Asgardians who had no qualms about partying all over the place the Gibborim were rarely seen and when they were it usually ended in disaster. If she hadn't been part of Starforce she doubted she would think they were anything more than a rumor. They were one of the most advanced races out there but also one of the most bizarre ones and it was not easy to get to know them or to know anything about them at all

The first problem was of course their home world. Their home system had two pulsars that projected so much radiation that most species in the galaxy would be dead after only a minute of being there. Only a few species like Asgardians and Xartans could survive for any real length of time (come to think of it she probably could as well but she was in no hurry to go there). Even with the best radiation shielding and the most modern ships any crew that spent more than a few hours in the system would die painfully. Unlike Asgard which was merely hard to reach the Gibborim home world was death trap. In fact the entire sector of the Galaxy was a death trap.

The second was the Gibborim themselves. They were not actually organic creatures in the way most species in the universe were. They were almost entirely composed of raw energy and for all intents and purposes immortal. They could communicate with others through their highly advanced technology but they rarely saw a point. Few other species in the galaxy had anything that would be of interest to them or even compatible with their technology. But the truly scary part was that if they decided they could take over any organic being and inhabit them. This happened extremely rarely due to the isolationist policies of the Gibborim but the possibility was there

There had been only sixteen confirmed cases in the last thousand years although they suspected that the number could be much higher due to the fact that unlike the Skrulls the Gibborim didn't have access just to the recent memories but took everything from their hosts. They could detect their energy but only when Gibborim used their power and their power was eerily similar to her own. Able to project energy blasts and fly. Of course based on the limited footage she had seen they weren't as powerful as her since they were only as durable as their hosts. Stopping one was not especially hard as long as they were within normal hosts (now if they were in some as tough as an Asgardian or a Jotun …that would be a challenge) but destroying the host merely meant that they would jump to another body. The Kree Intelligence division believed that this was an exhausting process and that if you kept destroying the hosts the Gibborim would eventually die but they never had the chance to test it. Rogue Gibborim were extremely rare.

The third was just how brutal they could be if angered. The Gibborim had relationships with only a few other species, most of which were as bizarre as them. When the Kree had attempted to discretely take over a Gibborim ship over Xartan, the small ship barely bigger then a transport vessel had destroyed the two Kree Warships with barely any effort. The footage had been examined for generations and Carol still shuddered when she remembered it. The ship had been the most bizarre thing she had ever seen. It was like a living being. It could fly like nothing she had ever seen, executing maneuvers that should been impossible for any craft and it change it's shape and size at any time. The very few hits that actually manage to hit were healed in seconds. After it had destroyed the warships and the fighters it had proceeded to hunt down any escape pods . There were no survivors

Just a day later it had become even worse. A much large ship albeit with the same shapeshifitng ability had come and wiped out the hidden based on Xantar and the nearby city for suspected collaboration. And a few hours afterwards it had appeared over the nearest Kree colony not through the Universal Neural Teleportation Network but through some kind of unknown FTL drive and then proceeded to easily sweep aside all the orbital and ground defenses. What came next could be best describe as genocide. The entire moon was glassed, the atmosphere was destroyed. Not a single living thing was left. Over fifty thousand innocent Kree slaughtered over one botched attack on a small ship.

It was one of the very few instances where the Kree empire didn't react with the fury this deserved. Instead the Supreme Intelligence covered up the entire incident. Erasing all data and stopping any further probing into the Gibborim. In fact the entire sector had become blacklisted. The only reason why Carol was aware of all these details was because Yonn Rogg had insisted that she was too overconfident and wanted to show her what kind of monsters they were in the Galaxy.

Of course Carol didn't have much faith in Kree's history anymore but somehow she felt that they might be right about this. With Kree it was all about propaganda, about spreading fear and misinformation. Here it was the opposite instead. Everybody was cautious; everything was swept under the rug.

She probably broke her speed record heading back to Earth but based on the data the satellite had shown this was not just some Gibborim randomly flying around. No the readings indicated an extreme use of energy and this spelled bad news for humanity. Carol cursed herself for being so far away. The journey back would take almost two weeks even at her top speed and who knows what could happen by then. In the following days her satellite didn't indicate anything remotely resembling the sheer level of power as in the first encounter but after focusing its search grid and power on the region where the first outburst had come from she had managed to detect weak but steady signals that appeared regularly. Unlike the first signal which provided more than enough data to pinpoint a location these were mere small blips that just gave the general area of L.A

She hadn't received any signals from Fury and the satellite had shown no ships coming in from orbit so she was relatively sure that it wasn't a world ending event but she was still worried. When she broke atmosphere she intended to go to Fury first in case something happened to her(she had every confidence she could crush a few Gibborim especially if they were in humans hosts and that her powers would protect her from being possessed but still you could never be completely sure) but before she could get to him her sensor detected a spike in Gibborim energy. It was building and becoming stronger with every second. In less than five minutes the energy was so intense that her sensor was able to narrow the position to a few square meters instead of the whole L.A. Carol flew full speed at the signal, the beeping on her scanner making her feel as if she was rushing to defuse a bomb. The scans showed that the energy kept increasing, building with every second.

When she arrived at the location she was relieved. It was a secluded place and she wouldn't need to have a potentially devastating fight in a populated area. The Gibborim seemed to be hiding in some half buried mansion. If she wasn't flying she wouldn't have even noticed it. Her scanners showed that the energy was still rising higher and higher but she didn't need them to know this. She could see a strong light shining from behind the shades of half buried window. Looking around she couldn't find any strategic target and couldn't understand just what the Gibborim was doing . Why were they building up so much energy? Her intention was to approach carefully but when she heard a girl scream she didn't hesitate. She burst right through the window expecting to see carnage but instead she saw…..two naked girls. Or more specifically a naked Asian teenager riding the very glowing and very naked Gibborim that seemed to be possessing a blonde teenage girl.

"Shit" thought Carol before everybody started screaming

1 


	2. Chapter 2

"Shit" though Carol as she looked away respectfully while trying to appear non threatening at the same time. It didn't work

The room exploded into mayhem. The glowing girl stood protectively in front of the goth girl and launched the most unfocused photon blast Carol had ever seen. It barely pushed her back an inch and it reminded of the time when she was just discovering her powers. She had been barely out of the medical unit when Yonn Rogg had started her training, which was bizarre because according to every record she had the Gibborim were supposed to be powerful ancient creatures. Was this another lie by the Kree?

She was so distracted by the impotent photon beam directed at her and her own thoughts that she didn't notice the goth girl pull out a glowing staff and point it her

"Be gone" she yelled furiously

Carol felt as if a giant fist had punched her as she was launched out of the room travelling several hundred feet to slam hard into the nearby hill, as she tried to blink away the darkness she groaned as she realized that it was not darkness but soil. She was literally buried halfway into the hill. Well this was embarrassing; it's been a while since she had let her guard down to the point where someone could take her by surprise to such a degree. She should have known better then to underestimate teen girls.

As she pulled herself out of the hill she quickly looked around to make sure that nobody had seen. Then she began spitting out sand and dirt and trying to get it out of her clothes. God she hated sand, she would murder for a glass of water and a shower right now. But this would have to wait, for now she had to fix the mess back in the mansion. Flying slowly and with raised hands towards the room she saw that the two girls had gotten dressed and were joined by several other teenagers. A young Latina kid with glowing eyes holding a heavy broken column, a handsome boy that seemed to charging some kind blaster gloves, a young black kid seemed to be holding a simple baseball bat and another young girl with purple hair and glasses who was standing next to a dinosaur….an actual dinosaur. What the fuck?

"Relax. I come in peace" said Carol as calmly as she could while addressing the two girls in question. She braced herself in case the girl used ….whatever the hell this staff was, a kinetic blaster maybe? She had never seen one so powerful but who knew

"Lights out" growled the goth girl with her eyes turning a strange shade and that was the last thing Carol saw before she lost consciousness and collapsed on the ground

When she woke up she sensed that it had only been a few minutes. She also sensed that she was tied up on a chair with..what felt like duct tape. Thanks to her years of training both in the Air Force and with the Kree she knew how to play possum so nobody else noticed that she was awake giving her the perfect opportunity to eavesdrop

"Are we sure that this is going to hold her? I am pretty sure I could easily snap through this"

"I mean she seems to be more like Karolina right? Karolina can you break free from this?"

"I don't think so. But I guess I could fly with the chair?"

"Oh good idea. We should tie the chair!"

"Ok but we are assuming she is as strong as Karolina. What if she is stronger? After all Jonah easily kicked Karolina's ass and he is obviously a lot more powerful than her. What if this weird woman is like him?"

"He didn't kick my ass easily!"

"Ok sorry"

"Are we sure that she is even like Karolin? She seems to have a different glow. More yellowish then rainbow"

"I mean Jonah was more on white spectrum so maybe everyone has different colors?"

"Jonah is the very definition of a white man"

"Ok maybe we can go into this later Gert. Even if the bindings don't hold we should be able to deal with her seeing as how Nico already took her down once. The real concern is whether or not she has told anybody else where we are. We should consider moving. It's already bad enough that Topher knows "

"Hell no. I don't want to go back to the homeless camp. That was awful"

"We may not have a choice. If she works for our parents they could be coming next. We are not safe here"

"Shouldn't we find out if she actually works for our parents before we destroy our whole lives here?

"We should totally interrogate her!"

"Yes because we are so good at interrogations. We couldn't even find out anything about Topher before that weasel snaked out during the night"

"I am sure he will be back!"

"And who else could she work for? Or do you think she is just a random super powered woman chilling around L.A?"

"Why not? It happens in New York all the time. I mean Spiderman, Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage the freaking Avengers!?"

"Yeah but we are not in New York Molly. We are in L.A. The only freaks around here are us"

"Call my girlfriend a freak again and see what happens"

"I apologize. I should have used a better term. I supposed I have internalized a lot things and…."

"So how should we go about interrogate her?"

"Oh I know. We will get a bright lamp and throw a glass of water in her face! That's how they do it in the movies."

Carol already had a mouthful full of dirt and got taken out by teen today so she decided she might at least spare herself this embarrassment

"You know I wouldn't mind a glass of water "she said with her usual smartass tone startling all the teens in the room" And instead of interrogations how about we have a simple talk. Hi I am Carol"

Now that she no longer had to keep her eyes closed she got a good look at the kids and they were very much kids. Was the Gibborim using them for some purpose? Or was this just an innocent kid who accidentally got stuck with powers from some Gibborim artifact? The latter seemed more and more likely

"What the hell!? You said she would be down for hour"

"She was supposed to! She must be really strong"

"Hi I am Molly" said the smiling Latina girl cutting the pointless argument before it escalated. She had a cat hat on and was absolutely adorable

"Molly…you can't just" the anxious purpled haired girl started standing protectively next to the Molly and seemed be struggling with what to do before she looked behind her and seemed to get new confidence" I am Gert. And this is Old Lace"

Carol turned around and saw that the dinosaur had moved to stand mere inches behind her head. Maybe a few decades ago she would have been scared but now with her powers and after seeing Jurrasic Park with her family this was just super cool. She had to find a way to get Monica and Maria to meet it.

"Hey Molly and Gert. And hello Old Lace aren't you a beautiful boy" said a grinning Carol

"She is a girl" huffed Gert seemingly annoyed that Carol wasn't intimidated by her friend

"Sorry girl and you are …" she asked the rest with a smile

"Huh…Chase" the pretty boy who seemed to be just as uncomfortable as Gert but in a different way

"Alex" said the scowling boy who had gotten ahold of his bat again. He seemed to be serious paranoid one in the group

"Nico" said the goth girl while grasping her staff and moving protectively in front of her girlfriend

"Hi I am Karolina" The Gibborim said with a hesitant wave

"So are you saying you don't work for our parents?" Alex said

"I have no idea who your parents are" Carol said truthfully. Whoever these kids parents are she was about to have some words with them. Kids should not be terrified of their parents

"See I told you that she was just a hero passing by!" Molly said as she jumped excitedly" Do you know Spiderman!?"

"Molly we can't just trust her!" Alex said in frustration

"I am afraid you friend is right" Carol said as she kept her tone calm and hopefully reassuring

"You mean we can't trust you?" asked a devastated Molly

"No I mean I wasn't just passing by" Carol took a deep breath and decided to take a gamble. Looking Karolina straight in the eye she said" I know you are a Gibborim"

Carol paid close attention to see whether the girl would slip or not. Was she a Gibborim or just an unfortunate human? She seemed confused just like all her friends. Maybe she was like her and her powers were a result of an accident. But just as she was getting hopeful the purpled haired girl let out a loud laugh

"Wow what was the first hint? Was it the billboards, the Vanity Fair cover or her Met Gala appearance?" Gert said with heavy sarcasm

"…huh?"said a confused Carol

"Karolina is the daughter of Leslie Dean. You know the Leader of the Church of Gibborim. She has been the young face of the Church since she was a child. Were you investigating the Church?" asked Alex

"The Church of fucking what?" Carol nearly screamed. The Accusers have been itching for any reason to attack the Gibborim. If it wasn't for the Supreme Intelligence direct orders they would have gone on a suicidal mission to avenge the humiliation ages ago. If they ever found out that Earth had such a thing as a Church of Gibborim they would bomb it back to the stone age just on principle

"The Church of Gibborim is the ninth largest religion in the USA and growing by the day? How have you not heard of them?"

"Because I spent most of the last two decades in space and the only thing I know about the Gibborim is that they are an extremely dangerous and ancient alien race" snapped Carol and immediately felt guilty. She didn't mean to go off on the purpled haired girl but her nerves got the best of her

"I am an alien" said Karolina in a soft voice and a stunned expression on her face and now Carol felt even guiltier. She had no idea how you were supposed to break it to someone that they are not human but this was definitely not it

"So Nico how was it to have an encounter of the fourth kind?"asked a grinning Chase only get punched in the shoulder

The kids spent a few minutes dragging each other until Karolina finally interrupted

"Tell me everything"

It took a long time for both sides to get familiar with each other's stories. Carol began by giving the basics to help build a trust with the kids. She had to admit she kind of enjoyed sharing her story. The look of awe and excitement on the kid's faces was really sweet. Even Karolina seemed to temporarily get out of stupor to listen in rapt fascination

The mood turned more somber when the kids shared their own story and what a messed up story it was. Finding out that your parents were killing children? Carol had her issues with her own parents but as shitty as they were she couldn't imagine them murdering children. She also seemed to have found the actual Gibborim. The one called Jonah and who seemed to be in charge of everything. She had no idea that Gibborim could have children with other species but the revelation was the final nail in the coffin. There was no way she was leaving Earth until she made sure that this kid was protected. The entire galaxy would be after a Gibborim hybrid and the things they would do to her would make Mengele seem like a saint

" I think I know why they were killing the kids" said Carol after a moment. The box they described tickled her memory. There was an obscure procedure that involved literally stealing the lifeforce of sentient beings to heal yourself or prolong your own life. It was banned by every single galactic government. Not only was the procedure utterly barbaric but it also had horrifying side effect on the mental state of anybody who used it. People just went absolutely and violently insane usually after a single procedure. She didn't even want to think of just how unhinged this Jonah must be if he had been through more than fifteen" True Gibborim are energy beings who simply use organic ones as hosts. But humans are weak. The body of whomever this Jonah taken over must be falling apart. These procedures could be what is keeping him together. Keeping him strong"

"So we are talking body snatchers here" Alex said deep in thought" Could our parents have been taken over as well"

All the kids looked at Carol with hope in their eyes. The thought that their parents were victims instead of monsters was a very appealing one to all of them

"Based on what you told me….it's not very likely. I am sorry" Carol hated disappointing the children but giving them false hope could be worse and potentially very dangerous.

All the children seem to take this news hard the disappointment and pain written all over their features. All except Karolina and Nico. Ever since Carol had told her about the Gibborim she seemed to be borderline catatonic and her girlfriend held her close whispering constant reassurances

"I am sorry…I .." Karolina started breathing hard and tearing herself away from the goth girl…." I just…."

And ran upstairs to what was most likely her room. Her girlfriend quickly went after her determined not to leave her alone. Molly and Chase also seemed ready to follow her but Carol stopped them

"Don't. She is already overwhelmed. Give her some space"

"Speaking of space…did you just say that you spend two decades in space?!" the purpled haired girl asked

"Are you an alien as well?" added Molly with childish excitement

"Well I guess it's only fair. I used to be a pilot in the Air Force…."

Nico cursed under her breathe as she tried and failed to keep up with her Amazonian girlfriend and her gorgeous but ridiculously long legs. By the time she reached the top of the stairs she already in their room.

"Karolina" she said softly

"Please leave Nico. I just want to be alone"

The Witch hesitated, she was not good with emotional stuff and a part of her wanted to get out, wanted to revert back to her old self who pushed everybody away. But she couldn't, not after hearing so much pain in her girlfriend's voice

"As someone who spend nearly two years alone trust me it doesn't help" said Nico as she sat next to Karolina

"All this time I kept wondering what I am, where my powers come…..I thought they were a blessing but now I know. I am just a monster" Karolina said her voice breaking with the last words

"I guess that we can be monsters together then. Honestly it will be a relief not to pretend that I am good anymore" said Nico as she tried hard to keep her tone nonchalant

"What?" said a startled Karolina" Nico you are a not monster!"

"Oh come on Karolina you don't have to pretend anymore. I know what I am. I know how dark my powers are. I know that I am my mother's daughter. Just another monster like her"

"Nico your powers are beautiful and so are you. You are nothing like your mother. You are kind and good and …." seeing the smirk on Nico's face Karolina finally understood what she was doing" That was not nice"

"You know what's not nice? Hearing someone insult the people you love. So don't ever try this again. You are good person Karolina. No matter where you come from, no matter who your family is you are good. This is the only thing I know for sure in this world" Nico emphasized this by gently holding Karolina's hand

"But I am not…." sniffled Karolina" I have been meeting with Jonah"

"I am so shocked" said Nico in a dry tone

"You knew?" gasped Karolina

"I suspected it was something like"

Honestly she taught that Karolina was probably stalking her family from afar to make sure that they are ok but it was a close enough guess

"The whole excuses with taking a walk in the woods? Not very convincing seeing as how I know how much you hate the outdoors"

"I don't hate the outdoors!" said Karolina defensively

"Remember when we were twelve and on that school field trip and you literally climbed on me because you saw a rabbit?"

"Ok I told youthat I thought that this was a coyote and besides rabbits can be very dangerous. Have you seen their teeth Nico? They are huge!"

"And remember when you ran straight into a door because a butterfly was chasing you? And remember when ….."

"Ok I get the point"

"Look I get it ok. You want to understand where your powers come from , who you are. Trust I have often felt that urge as well."

"But I knew that he was a monster. I just ,….." Karolina trailed off looking miserable

" Was trying to find something good despite all this?. Hoping to find the good in people doesn't make you a monster Karolina. In fact it makes you the opposite"

"Thanks Nico" said Karolina as she gently kissed her and finally gave her a true smile

"You are welcome. And I will be here every time you need me to remind you that this is good" she said as she put her hand on Karolina's chest

"Yeah…my boobs are pretty great"answered Karolina with a smartass smirk

"I meant your heart you dork"said Nico as she couldn't help but laugh and hug Karolina" Now let's go back to the space lady and figure out the plan

Carol was a slightly overwhelmed by all the questions but also quite amused. The kids seemed to have endless questions about her story, especially about Goose. It's been a while since she has been around the infectious excitement of kids. They reminded her of Lieutenant Trouble and how much she missed her home. As soon as she was done with this she was heading straight for Maria. She was due for some vacation.

Seeing the girls coming back from upstairs she knew that the time for questions was over

"Ok guys I will tell you more about this later and yes Molly I will try to introduce you to Goose" seeing the confused looks on Karolina and Nico's face she added "Long story you will find out later. But anyway now we need to go. Taking down your parents and Jonah won't be easy but I know a way"

"You do? How?" asked a skeptical Alex

"I happen to know the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. Your parents may be billionaires but they have also colluded with a hostile alien power. S.H.I.L.D will eat them for breakfast"

She knew that Fury and his agency have done a lot of blunders but they were quite influential and Fury had no qualms to charge ahead even against powerful figures so she was quite pleased with the fact that she would be able to help this kids so fast. Which is why she was puzzled when she saw their faces

"Why are you all looking at me like this?"

"Yeah….I don't know how to tell you this but…..S.H.I.E.L.D is gone" said Chase awkwardly

"What do you mean gone?" asked a baffled Carol. Agencies didn't just disappear like this

"Well it turns out that it was massively infiltrated by Nazis who were going to use their tech to slaughter like gazillion people so Captain America and Black Widow stopped them and leaked all the info. Then the World Governments pretty much dissolved S.H.I.E.L.D"

"Oh for fuck's sake" cursed Carol. Because of course that nothing could be damn easy for once


End file.
